They may have conceded twice from set pieces in their last two games, but Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson does not see it as a cause for concern.

The Eagles lost out to an 86th minute winner from Mikel Merino at St James’ Park on Saturday, with the Spaniard becoming the second player in two games to head home from a corner against Palace in the last two games, after Tiemoue Bakayoko the week before.

But Hodgson says he felt Palace defended set pieces well in the north east and that they were unfortunate to concede from a corner.

“Well, it doesn’t matter how organised you are from set pieces - and I thought we were quite organised from set pieces – when something like what happened here happens, it would be wrong of me to put that down to a lack of commitment or a lack of desire, or a lack of ability in the marking,” he said.

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“Unfortunately our guy got to the ball first, headed it against one of theirs and it happened to go in.

“I thought we dealt with the set play threat pretty well throughout the game, because I knew from watching them [Newcastle] against Southampton how good they are from set pieces, but I thought we handled that well.

“Unfortunately they handled our set plays well too because I think we were a threat from set plays.